


Experiment

by berusama



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, PWP, mild dub-con, sex potion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-07
Updated: 2009-03-07
Packaged: 2020-03-07 16:43:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18877129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/berusama/pseuds/berusama
Summary: "What," Arthur gasps, braced above Merlin, "was in that potion?"





	Experiment

Arthur sniffs the potion experimentally. It is suspiciously not-foul-smelling.

“It’s for your back,” Merlin supplies unnecessarily.

“I know what it’s _for_ ,” Arthur says, shooting the other man a glare. Merlin challenges him with an expectantly quirked eyebrow, so Arthur tips the contents of the jar down his throat without another word.

That he does not gag at the taste, Arthur will think later, should have been an indication that something was off. As it is, the shudder that rolls up his back and wracks his shoulders is understandably distracting. There’s a sudden warmth at his lower back that is unnatural, if not unpleasant. It soothes its way up to his neck and then down his arms.

“Arthur?” Merlin asks, stooping a bit to get a look at the blonde’s eyes. They’re a bit glazed over, the unfocused blue standing out sharply against the flush that has spread across Arthur’s cheeks. “Is it working?”

“I’m not sure,” Arthur says, his voice pitched lower than usual and Merlin is about to put a hand to the prince’s forehead when his eyes pop open dramatically.

Arthur gasps loudly in shock, his hands flying to Merlin’s arms for support. He braces himself against his servant as the warmth that had finished spreading to all points of his body suddenly flares, concentrated between his legs.

“Arthur,” Merlin says, half worry, half protestation as Arthur’s preoccupation forces more of his weight towards Merlin. He braces his own arms against Arthur’s, but they’re already tipping to the side and Arthur is doing nothing to stop their decent to the floor.

He lands on his back, arms stretched out to keep Arthur from crushing him, but of course the prince manages to catch _himself_ , arms braced on either side of Merlin’s head.

“Are you alright?” Merlin asks eventually because Arthur’s head is hung and he appears to be struggling to breathe.

“No,” Arthur grits out between clenched teeth. Another shudder forces its way to his shoulders and Merlin puts his hands against Arthur’s chest in case the blonde should suddenly collapse.

“Arthur-” he starts to say, because through the thin material of his tunic, Merlin can feel an unnatural sort of heat emanating from the prince.

“What,” Arthur gasps, cutting him off, “was in that potion?”

“Nothing unusual! I followed Gaius’ instructions perfectly, I didn’t even-”

“ _You_?” Arthur demands, lifting his head to glare at Merlin. His pupils are dilated, his bottom lip bright red where he’d been biting it, and Merlin finally begins to panic. “You-”

Arthur’s eyes go wide again and he chokes on his own words, turning his face away from Merlin again.

“Arthur?” Merlin grips the material of his tunic and the blonde lets out a shuddering breath. “Arthur let me up, I’ll go get Gaius. He’ll know what to do.”

Arthur just shakes his head and Merlin’s about to yell, about to start pushing and fighting his way to Gaius when he notices Arthur’s hips. They thrust forward with every rolling shudder that shakes Arthur’s body; tiny, sharp thrusts that are, now that he’s listening, timed with the shallow panting he can _feel_ because his hands are still braced against Arthur’s chest. He retracts them quickly, palms up like Arthur’s about to get violent, and simply stares.

Arthur lets out a wretched sounding groan, his body shifting forward so blonde hair pokes Merlin in the eye, and Merlin can’t help but start laughing.

“It’s not _funny_ ,” Arthur practically growls lifting his head to glare at Merlin.

“Not funny?” Merlin laughs. “Arthur you’re humping air.”

Arthur drops his head to Merlin’s shoulder.

“This is all your fault,” he pants, the movement of his hips becoming more pronounced.

Merlin laughs again and puts his hands back on Arthur’s chest to try and shove the blonde away.

“Maybe you’re allergic to something that was in the potion,” Merlin says, trying to sound calm, making no progress with the shoving. “Arthur, get _off_!”

“I’m trying to!” Arthur groans, gasps for breath and shoves his hips so far forward that Merlin can feel the heat from Arthur’s body all along his own.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” and this time when Merlin laughs it sounds a little hysterical to his own ears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

Arthur makes a soft, keening noise, like something is breaking inside him and then he stills, one final violent shudder taking hold of his body. He falls onto his side, thankfully missing Merlin, though their legs are tangled now.

The room is silent for several uncomfortable moments and then Merlin begins laughing again, real and loud and wildly uncontrollable.

“Shut _up_ ,” Arthur yells, covering his face with one arm.

Merlin continues to giggle insolently so Arthur kicks at him.

“So…” Merlin says, moving out of Arthur’s kicking range. “How does your back feel?”

Arthur lifts his arm to glare so fiercely that he hopes Merlin can _feel_ it, but the idiot only grins wider and then scrambles from the room when Arthur shifts to try and kick him again.

Arthur lies there for several minutes, trying to pretend that he did not just have an unintentional sexual experience while braced above his manservant. It doesn’t work of course, so as Arthur readies himself for bed – a task Merlin thankfully ran away from tonight – he can only hope that Merlin will be an adult about this and never speak of it again.

 

\- - -

 

“Good morning,” Merlin says, setting down Arthur’s breakfast tray with a smirk that tells Arthur he doesn’t plan to ever stop teasing his prince over what happened last night.

Arthur feels himself flush and sends Merlin to the stocks for the better part of the day.

He feels better until Merlin arrives that night with the same smirk and a new vial of red liquid.

“This is from Gaius,” he says, grinning as Arthur balks at the sight of the potion. “But you probably won’t like it as much as you liked the one I made.”

“Liked it?” Arthur says, horrified. “You _drugged_ me!”

“How was I supposed to know you’d react like that? Personally I think you should see Gaius. Maybe you have an imbalance of… something.”

“I am not imbalanced!” Arthur yells, wanting to hit the smirk from Merlin’s face.

“Alright, calm down,” Merlin says, attempting to sound placating but the effect is ruined by the unsettling gleam in his eyes, “You know how you get when you work yourself up.”

Arthur chases him out with a glare and a well aimed boot.

 

\- - -

 

Arthur would keep Merlin in the stocks permanently if only his father wouldn’t ask what Merlin did to deserve such a punishment. It’s bad enough that Morgana seems to have picked up on the fact that something is going on.

“What happened between you and Merlin?” she asks during an evening meal, a week after the incident. A confused smile is tugging at her lips as she watches Merlin walk away with Arthur’s goblet. ‘Better not, sire,’ he had said when Arthur motioned for more wine. ‘We wouldn’t want you drinking what you can’t handle.’

“Nothing happened,” Arthur says too quickly. Morgana does smile then, and her eyes tell him she knows he’s lying but at least _she_ knows when not to push. It’s not knowledge she takes into consideration often, but perhaps the past week’s infuriating and untimely flashes of embarrassment show on his face because she turns to the visiting noble woman sitting at her other side without another word.

Arthur excuses himself shortly thereafter and makes his way to his rooms slowly, trying to think of any possible way to get Merlin back for this week. He’s tried to act as though it was nothing, as though he’d already forgotten but one smirk or poorly veiled innuendo from his insubordinate servant and Arthur’s been blushing more this week than he has before in his life.

He used to be so good at subjecting others to public humiliation but now he can’t seem to come up with a single way to get Merlin back.

Arthur pushes open the doors to his chambers and sighs.

“What do you want?” he says knowing full well that it shouldn’t matter. _He’s_ the prince here.

Merlin spins around, startled and something falls from the table to the floor, breaking loudly.

“What?” Merlin asks, his eyes turning playful and knowing. Arthur clenches his jaw and eyes the mess on the floor.

“What was that?”

“Your potion, sire,” Merlin answers with a grin, “I’m terribly sorry for dropping it, I know how much you were looking forward to drinking it.”

Arthur feels the heat flare across his cheeks. He has had _enough_ of this.

Two quick strides and he has Merlin’s shirt bunched in his fists.

“Will you drop it already?” he seethes, shoving Merlin back towards the wall. “I am your Prince and you will show me some respect.”

“I have nothing but the highest respect for your highness,” Merlin replies, smirking as he leans back against the stone. “Even if self control is not something you’ve been trained for since birth.”

“You’re just loving this, aren’t you?”

“Well, not as much as you-”

Arthur snarls and cuts him off by slamming his hands to the wall on either side of Merlin’s head.

Merlin raises an eye brow at him. “Again, my lord?”

“Shut up!” Arthur yells, desperate to make him stop. Morgana may have teased him when they were younger, may still needled him endlessly to get her way, but nothing she did or said to him was ever this frustrating, this infuriating, this embarrassing. “For the love of Camelot. Shut. Up.”

When Merlin simply laughs at his outburst, Arthur snaps.

“We’ll see how you like it,” he says as his hands fall down to Merlin’s hips. The laughter dies in Merlin’s throat, replaced by a surprised curse as Arthur cups one hand between his legs.

“Arthur! What-” but the words end in a groan as Arthur _presses_ the heel of his palm down the line of Merlin's cock. “Don’t,” Merlin gasps, but his hands are gripping Arthur’s clothing, not pushing him away, so Arthur doesn’t pay any attention.

Besides, Merlin needs to learn a lesson. As Arthur unlaces Merlin’s breeches and shoves his hand inside he’s not quite sure what that lesson is exactly, but Merlin’s certainly going to learn it, regardless.

“Arthur,” Merlin breathes, bringing one hand up to clutch at the back of Arthur’s neck, to tangle in the hairs there. Arthur swallows and watches Merlin’s eyelids flutter open and closed. It occurs to him that this wasn’t exactly the plan, but he twists his wrist anyway, pulling a low moan from Merlin and the fingers in his hair clench as Merlin comes all over Arthur’s waiting hand. He wipes the mess down Merlin’s leg because he deserves it, but that doesn’t quite stop Arthur from resting his head on Merlin’s shoulder.

“Thanks,” Merlin croaks eventually. Arthur raises his head and asks ‘What?’ with his eyes. Merlin shrugs. “It feels like I’ve been hard all week.”

Arthur gapes, trying for angry. “So what, you thought you’d take it out on me?” he demands.

“Well yeah,” Merlin grins.

“I should sack you for this.”

“You should have sacked me every day for the past year.”

Arthur thinks that this is probably true. Clearly there is something wrong with him.

“So, uh, do you want me to return the favor?”

“For not sacking you?” Arthur asks, confused.

“No,” Merlin laughs, bending his leg a bit so his thigh grazes up and down Arthur’s.

“Oh,” he says. And, “alright,” because really why should he say no? This is what servants are _for_. Merlin grins and then slides down the wall and Arthur is confused for all of two seconds before he groans loudly and braces his forearms against the cold stone.

 

\- - -

 

It’s not that sex with Arthur has gotten boring…

Merlin watches surreptitiously as Arthur drains the liquid from his goblet. He’s still in sweaty underclothes but that can be remedied easier than the full armor he had arrived in. Merlin has time for only one deep, steadying breath before Arthur whips around, pinning him with a look from wide, accusing eyes.

“What the-” he’s cut off by an intense shudder. Merlin can’t help but grin as realization spreads across Arthur’s features and he braces himself against the table. “You’ll pay for this.”

“I certainly hope so,” Merlin replies and Arthur’s head snaps up. Within seconds he’s cleared the table and pushed Merlin through to the bedroom and onto the bed.

It’s not that sex with Arthur has gotten boring in the few weeks they’ve been sharing a bed, but Merlin had to know. Had to see Arthur like this again: panting and desperate, needing release so badly he’s practically incapacitated by it. He hinders more than helps with the undressing and they don’t get much further before Arthur is rutting against Merlin, one arm curled around his waist for better leverage.

Merlin bends his knees, forces his hips up into Arthur’s and doesn’t even care that the friction of just skin is a bit too much. Arthur’s face is pressed against his neck and all Merlin can hear are great shuddering sobs punctuated by soft, desperate noises. He presses his hands to his eyes to better concentrate on the sounds, to savor the unabashed need in Arthur’s voice as he chants Merlin’s name.

And when Arthur comes, warm and slick against Merlin’s own cock, it feels the same: the sudden stillness, the five points of near-pain as Arthur’s fingers press harder to his flesh, the way Arthur starts moving again, almost immediately, to pull Merlin over the edge with him. It’s all the same and Merlin sighs Arthur’s name as he comes.

He’s not sure what he was testing for, not sure until now that this was even for anything more than just fun. So when Arthur asks, after several minutes, ‘What was that for?’ Merlin laughs at himself.

Arthur lifts his head and Merlin presses a kiss to his lips before he can ask again.

“Just an experiment,” Merlin says softly into Arthur’s mouth.

“Hmm,” Arthur hums, biting at Merlin’s lower lip. “And were the results to your satisfaction?”

“Oh, yes,” Merlin whispers and they both smile into the next kiss.


End file.
